


Losing Dogs

by boatkaptain



Category: Megalo Box (Anime)
Genre: ???? - Freeform, Canon Compliant, Established Relationship, Implied Sexual Content, Kissing, M/M, Pre-Canon, uhhhh i have NO idea how to tag this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:07:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21844903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boatkaptain/pseuds/boatkaptain
Summary: Nanbu and Aragaki spend their last few hours before the latter's deployment in bed together.
Relationships: Tatsumi Leonard Aragaki/Nanbu Gansaku
Comments: 6
Kudos: 7





	Losing Dogs

**Author's Note:**

> so how about them boxin' boys huh
> 
> i'm a slut for this anime and somehow an even bigger slut for this pairing, apparently. none of the characters have definite ages so, for the record, nanbu is 45 in this and aragaki is 34. or somewhere around there; whatever. they're gay and in love and tragic and OH how it wounds me

“Don’t go, Tatsumi.”

Aragaki craned his neck in an attempt to catch eyes with his companion, but Nanbu’s gaze was out of view, the older man’s stubbly face half-hidden against one of bare pecs.

“I don’t even want to think about it, Gansaku,” he murmured, pulling his hand from Nanbu’s back to brush his fingers through his hair. “Don’t make me.”

“You don’t have a goddamn choice.” Nanbu’s voice was quick and sharp, traitorously shaky.

Ever the level one of the two of them, Aragaki sighed, brushed a thumb over Nanbu’s cheek.

“I know you’re scared,” he said. “Heaven knows I am, too. But spending all night wishing it wasn’t gonna happen won’t get us anywhere.”

“Bullshit. There has to be some loophole.”

“You wanna get me saddled with a case of hepatitis?” In spite of himself, Aragaki barked out a laugh. “If only homosexuality still gauranteed I got kicked out of the draft.”

Nanbu sat up, clicking his tongue distastefully. “Don’t fucking joke about that.”

Aragaki looked at him for a moment longer--curly hair disheveled and cheeks still warm from the preceding activities, stocky body taut with determination--before sitting up alongside him, a hand landing on his shoulder.

“There’s gotta be some kind of paperwork I can forge for you. Proof of previous enlistment, something like that.”

“And file in the--” Aragaki glanced at the analog clock on the nightstand--“six hours we still have together?”

Fast as a flash, Nanbu’s face was overswept with devastation and terror.

“You can’t go, Tatsumi,” he uttered as Aragaki pulled him into his arms, buried his chin in his neck. “You can’t.”

“I have to.”

“No, you don’t.” Nanbu shoved him away by the shoulders. “We could just run. Abandon the gym, leave without a trace--what are they gonna do, hunt you down just to kill you off in this stupid war?”

Aragaki let out a breath, his chin dropping to his collar before he looked back to Nanbu with a pleading frown. “More than anything in the world, Gansaku, I just want to spend these last hours with you. Not running. Not forging paperwork. Just…” His hand found Nanbu’s, ran softly over his wiry hair and calluses.

A fat teardrop fell onto their joined fingers. Aragaki looked up.

“It isn’t fucking fair,” Nanbu hissed.

Aragaki pulled them together again, and Nanbu reciprocated the embrace this time, great arms grasping at Aragaki’s back in a desperate effort to move closer.

“Wait for me, Gansaku,” Aragaki whispered. “I promise I’ll come back. I promise.”

Nanbu just nodded into Aragaki’s neck.

“I love you.”

Nanbu’s fingers tightened at Aragaki’s shoulder blades. Nails dug in, made Aragaki wince. “Don’t say that. Not now.”

“It’s true.”

“Fuck you,” Nanbu wept. “Fuck you, Tatsumi.”

Aragaki gripped Nanbu gently by the chin and kissed him, lips firm and intent against the older man’s unprotesting frown. Slowly, Nanbu reciprocated, a shuddery sigh slipping from his throat between kisses. They fell back to the bed, clinging to one another, lips parting and rejoining and whispering each other’s names in hopeless, meaningless prayer. For a moment, it seemed everything would spiral back into the same desperate sex they’d only just grown too tired for--their legs tangled compulsively, fingers tangled in one another’s hair--but then the spark of need fled the room, and they were left to stare at one another’s ruddy faces in the dim, buzzing light of the loft.

“You should sleep,” Nanbu whispered.

“I don’t want to.”

They kissed again, and stayed awake as long as they could, eyes fixed on each other. But sleep eventually came and stole their time away, and they rested, wrapped up as tightly as two people could be.

In the morning, Nanbu drove Aragaki to the train station. He waited, parked in the lot, well after the younger man’s little face and waving hand in the distant passenger car window disappeared into the distant daylight. Nanbu laid his head against the steering wheel and cried, unashamed--and on the train already speeding towards its rural destination, Aragaki thumbed a betting ticket, nail brushing over the name of Nanbu’s losing dog.

**Author's Note:**

> shrugs for a thousand years. will this fic gain any traction? does a megalo box fandom still exist? we shall see


End file.
